IF: PACKED

FINAL UPDATE:

Here it is... my animal bunch eating some packed lunches. I thought I wasn't going to finish it. My kids have been sick and I have bronchitis :( , but what a great feeling to be able to post it finished and then move on to other stuff... like decorating my house for Halloween! 

Oh, I so agree with your comments, those kids did look kinda stressed out! I am much happier with these animals.

"Kids eating packed lunches"

Work in progress....

Sketch

Color Study

I'm still working on colors and composition and will post the finished product later this week.

Thanks for visiting!

UPDATE: I guess this is what happens when you see the process... I completely changed my mind! These little animal creatures kept popping up in my head and I kept thinking that it would be so much fun to draw them. The overall composition is the same, but I think this looks more fun! I still have to paint it on illustration board, but here is the general idea:

Star Light, Star Bright

Star light, star bright,

The first star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.
-by Alfred Bester,

I didn't participate in this week's IF, because I was busy finishing this piece. I wanted to add a piece to my portfolio that illustrated one of my favorite nursery rhymes, and I wanted to stay congruent with my style. I thought this charming and simple nursery rhyme was the best choice.

I'm happy with the outcome. I welcome any comments. 

Just for Fun!

I started these paintings a few months ago and just got around to finishing them this weekend. They are small 10"x 10", colorful, fun paintings (for sale. If you are interested contact me). I won't have time to create anything this week for IF, so I thought I'd share these. Have a great week every one!

SWEETEST BLOG AWARD EVER!

I was surprised this week by my very talented blogging friend Diana Evans who gave me this Sweet and scrumptious award! This award is so beautiful and colorful, it makes me want to eat a cupcake! Be sure to check out her work!

In her own words:

"I am giving this award to all the wonderful people that I visit almost every day....they have inspired me and shared their wonderful lives with all of us....
I only ask that you nominate some of the wonderful people you visit each and every day...."

And the award goes to.......

• Nicole Merkens
• Bella Sinclair
• Tom Barret
• Krisztina Maros 
• Kathleen Rietz
• Ms. Froggie
• Nina Seven
• Deborah Mori
• Claudine Hellmuth

IF: Island UPDATE

Here's my finished version of the 'Island' theme for Illustration Friday. I started painting and half way through it I lost my steam. Even though I did the color study at first, I just wasn't feeling it! Has this happened to anyone? Where you start a painting or illustration and half way you think it's all wrong? I liked the sketch, but once I added color it seemed that too much was going on. I finished it anyway hoping in the end it would work out, but I'm still unsure, so I played with it in Photoshop and created the black and white version below, which I like better. What do you think? 

illustration Friday: Island

"Stranded on a Cup Cake Island"

(Diana- I love your cupcakes, and I thought of you when I was doing this. Hope you like mine!)

This week is another challenging 'time' week. I hope to color this illustration later on this week and update this post. I have some graphic design work, which I hope to share here once I'm further along. I'm still way behind on my blogs... just not enough time!

I also went to the local SCWBI meeting where I am the only illustrator attending, so the feedback was from writers only. However, it was wonderful feedback all around. It was great!

Illustration Friday: Clutter

To this boy this is not clutter, it is the pirate adventure to sail the seven seas!

and the finished 'memories' from last week.

Illustration Friday: Memories

Work in Progress...

This past two weeks I've been reminded that my time is not my own. We are back to school and I am realizing how little time I will have left every week to devote for my art. I enjoyed all of the extra time I had over the summer and had a lot of fun navigating to other blogs and learning about other artists. I am not sure how much time I will have during this school year, but I will try my best to produce one piece a week and to post once a week. I hardly had any time to visit some of my favorite blogs this week. My Google reader is about to explode with 'unread' entries!

Anyway, I didn't get too far this week, but I was experimenting again. New paper (cold press water color paper), gouache and ANIMALS! I was really intimidated trying out animals as main characters. I think last time I really drew an animal with bodies and everything was back in elementary school. I've always been into people mostly. 

I think these characters look cute. I'm not sure if original enough, but my kids really liked  them, and I enjoyed coming up with them. I thought the animal birthday party fit the 'memories' theme for IF.

My daughter has been painting a lot with me, and she wanted me to add her work to my blog, so I now have a corner on the left for my kids' art. Her favorite subject is horses!

I will be away for Labor Day weekend enjoying the family and some nice weather. I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday weekend, and I hope to catch up a bit with my blogs next week!

Thanks for stopping by!

HELVETICA GIVE AWAY WINNERS!

I really enjoyed this giveaway. It was great to find out that many people had heard or watched the movie already. 

Saturday, I put all the names in a hat, and had each of my kids pick a paper with a name.

(Drum roll, please!) ... and the winners are:

• Luci
• Scott

and Thanks to New Video Digital for giving me the opportunity to have this giveaway!

illustration Friday: ROUTINE

This week we started school and it is always an opportunity to improve or introduce a new routine. My kids are little (3 and 6) and it is always a challenge to get them to do things independently in the morning and at night to get out of the house on time, or get to bed on time. I introduced the idea of a rewards chart when we were potty training my daughter, and it worked well. We used to do a small toy or ice cream at the end of the week, but now that she is older, I want her to understand the value of money. I used the same incentive for my son because even though he is only 3, he wants to do what his sister does. 

It hasn't been a full week yet, but they are doing great! We have made it to school on time every day (which was a huge problem last year) and I haven't had to get upset! 

Anyway, I thought this chart worked perfect for the theme.

On a separate note, I am posting a late IF for detach. I interpreted the topic in two ways; The obvious, the parents and the little boy 'detach' on the first day of school. For the little one and the parents, it's usually a moment filled with uncertainty and worry.

The second meaning is more personal, I 'detached' myself from my usual style and medium to experiment with something new. I recently checked out about 20 or more children's books and have been visiting the children's section at BN quite regularly trying to find books that mimic my current style, and to my surprise, I have not been able to find any that resembles mine. (if you know of one, let me know...I'm curious).
Anyway, that made me think, that perhaps my illustrations are not kid friendly enough, and I should vary my style and try more simple shapes and more flat colors.
I used gouache and watercolors for this one. Any thoughts or comments are welcomed!

And lastly, Fay kept us home for a day, and gave me some extra time.  I decided to paint a sketch I had posted for a character study.

Sorry about the long post...

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Illustration Friday: DETACH and HELVETICA GIVEAWAY!

I know, most of you are probably thinking...WHAAATTT? This is not a children's illustration? and why is Edrian posting a graphic design piece?

I guess I have to go back a decade or so ago, when I was in college studying art, and graphic design...YES, I am a graphic designer too! So there it is! I guess that didn't take too long. I love graphic design and when I think about how much design is around us, it's really amazing to see how much we take it for granted. 

I watched a wonderful documentary about one of the most popular typefaces out there: HELVETICA. If you are curious about how design impacts our culture, or if you love graphic design, I highly recommend this film.  

HELVETICA is a film by Gary Hustwit and is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It also features some of the greatest graphic designers of our time! 

GIVEAWAY!!

You could purchase the entire film on iTunes  or you may take your chances and win a FREE download from iTunes here. Just enter a comment for this post from now through August 22nd-noon.  I will then pick TWO winners at random and forward the email addresses to the film's distributor who will then gift the download from iTunes. I will post the winners on Monday Aug 18th. Please make sure to leave an email address where I can contact you if you win.

Helvetica Trailer: http://www.helveticafilm.com/clips.html
Helvetica Art: http://www.plexifilm.com/title.php?id=31

Illustration Friday: SAIL, UPDATE

I Could not resist! I had to redo this illustration with acrylics, my medium of preference. Every time I looked at the color pencils version, it just seemed unfinished, washed out and not quite right. As much as I liked the colors, I felt the background was fighting with the main characters. I fixed a couple of other things that were bugging me like the feet of the boy on the left. They were too small and made him look off balance. I think now he's more anchored.  I also made the frog bigger.

This is a quick post, and maybe the last one for another week. We are gearing up for the beginning of another school year, and getting up early, making it to school on time, homework, and after school activities will make next week CRAZY!

 

MY CARDS ARE IN!!!

My cards are here, and they look great! They are printed in a really thick matte stock, which I've always liked better. Psprint.com really delivered! The colors are great, the quality fantastic, and the price very reasonable. I am very happy with their product, now I just need to start handing them out!

An Award!

What a great day! I was surprised by the very talented and kind Diana Evans who makes the most delicious digital cupcakes ever! (among other things). Her blog is so neat, I'm a fan myself!

Since I have to nominate 7 other blogs, I will start with some VERY talented artists and some of my favorite reads:

• Diana's (right back at you girl!) followed by:

• Nicole Merkens for always being such a wonderful friend off-line and on-line!

• Bella Sanclair whos given me such wonderful words of support since she found my blog

• Dani Jones for having such cool tutorials and putting so much effort into her blog. 

My last three nominees are people who's work I admire and who visit my blog on a regular basis... 

• Kathleen Rietz
• Eric Barclay, and
• Andi Butler.
  
  I could go on and mention more wonderful people that I have had the pleasure to contact through my blog, but then I would not finish today...and I want to get back to my illustration...

The rules are:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog

2. Link the person you received your award from

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated
I'm passing this award on to these wonderful and talented blog friends....I pop by their blogs almost daily for some inspiration....